Katesgrove councillor Rose Williams was joined by other councillors in unanimously rejecting the development of the site at 40 Silver Street for 62 student studios when Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) planning applications committee met on Wednesday 7 February.

Answer: all three councils were late in producing accounts for the year ended 31 March 2017, had a problem with the accounts for the previous year and were issued with a statutory written recommendation by their auditors during the year. This is not a select troika to which any council wants to belong.

Henry Philbrick, elder brother of Charles and George Philbrick of the tannery on Katesgrove Lane, went out to Australia to seek his fortune in 1857. After a period in the goldfields of Victoria he turned to the family trade and set up a tannery at Broadford in 1865.

The heritage antenna on Katesgrove Hill crackled into life when it received a transmission from the Reading Borough Council planning committee webcast in November about possible English Civil War defences underneath a town centre site proposed for redevelopment .

The latest application to redevelop the site of the Woodley Arms public house as 38 student studios (171893) will be considered at the Reading Borough Council (RBC) planning applications committee on Wednesday 10 January.

‘Parched City‘ was an impulse buy from the Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC) bookshop. The cover featuring the 1859 opening of London’s first public drinking fountain in the wall of St Sepulchre’s Church in the City of London was a magnet for this Whitley Pump correspondent.

Reading Borough Council (RBC) are strapped for cash and so are proposing to reduce council tax support (CTS) from April 2018. The changes are subject to a public consultation which closes on 1 January 2018.

The Whitley Pump met Matt Rodda, still Katesgrove councillor but more preoccupied with Westminster business these days, in the Global Cafe at RISC on London Street. He explained how he was pushing for things in Parliament that local people wanted and his top three priorities were to fight austerity, fight against hard Brexit and provide more affordable housing.